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Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., walks with reporters to a Democratic Caucus meeting the morning after President Donald Trump’s State of the Union speech, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2019. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) more >

The left’s hatred for President Trump runs so deep that liberals are hoping for — even actively working toward — the demise of America.

Case in point: Democrats decry Mr. Trump’s use of the presidential power of the executive order (a power, it should be noted, that former President Barack Obama used 13 times) to secure the U.S.-Mexico border, which they hope to bottle up in court.

To Democrats, the well-being of Americans (who, it should also be noted, pay their exorbitant salaries) is second to the goal of destroying Mr. Trump. Democrats have tied his hands in Congress, and now are set to begin open-ended probes into everything from his taxes to his children. They don’t care about their actions’ impact on the United States.

But nowhere is the goal to rip down Mr. Trump at any cost more evident than the ongoing Jussie Smollett debacle. The TV star last month claimed he was the victim of a racist anti-gay attack — by two Trump supporters, of course — and Democrats, along with the lapdog media, ate it up with a spoon.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tweeted: “The racist, homophobic attack on @JussieSmollett is an affront to our humanity. No one should be attacked for who they are or whom they love. I pray that Jussie has a speedy recovery & that justice is served. May we all commit to ending this hate once and for all.”

She later deleted the tweet, but only after many questions emerged about Mr. Smollett’s account of the attack.

Responding to a report that said Mr. Smollett had suffered a “possible homophobic and racially charged attack,” Democratic socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted: “There is no such thing as ‘racially charged.’ This attack was not ‘possibly’ homophobic. It was a racist and homophobic attack. If you don’t like what is happening to our country, then work to change it. It is no one’s job to water down or sugarcoat the rise of hate crimes.”

To Democrats, there was no point in waiting for the facts to come out (just as they refused to do in the Senate confirmation hearing for Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh). The story fit their narrative, so they ran with it — damn the facts.

Sen. Cory Booker, a black New Jersey Democrat running for president, took the opportunity to sow division: “The vicious attack on actor Jussie Smollett was an attempted modern-day lynching.” California Sen. Kamala Harris, who is half black and also a 2020 Democratic hopeful, apparently got the same talking points: “This was an attempted modern day lynching. No one should have to fear for their life because of their sexuality or color of their skin. We must confront this hate.”

Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the vicious new Muslim congresswoman from Michigan, went further: “When one of the most famous black and gay men in America is not safe, the message is clearer than it has ever been. The dangerous lies spewing from the right wing is killing & hurting our people,” she tweeted.

The limousine liberals got in on the act, too. Singer Katy Perry tweeted, “Standing with and sending love to @JussieSmollett today… this is a racist hate crime and is disgusting and shameful to our country.”

The media got a thrill up its collective leg. “There are many indications of a hate crime here. They are looking for two suspects who were apparently wearing ‘Make America Great Again’ hats, though that has not yet been officially confirmed,” said MSNBC national correspondent Miguel Almaguer. Unconfirmed rumor? Good enough for MSNBC.

And it all came around, as it so often does, to blaming Mr. Trump. Washington Post writer Eugene Scott wrote: “To many, the Smollett incident — and the political nature of the assault — is yet another reminder for many black gay Americans that this president’s vision of a ‘great America’ does not appear to include them.”

Karen Attiah, a Washington Post editor, wrote: “Regarding the heinous attack on @JussieSmollett, yet another reminder that Trump’s ascendance and the resulting climate of hate has meant that lives have been increasingly at stake since 2015. Smollett could have been killed by those thugs screaming MAGA. Let that sink in.”

Amy Siskind, a Huffington Post contributor, tweeted: “Can we get anyone in the Trump orbit to condemn the 2 MAGA men who brutally attacked Jussie Smollett, a gay black man, and put his head in a noose while saying ‘This is MAGA country,’ so others don’t feel like your silence is legitimizing hate? How about you @realDonaldTrump?”

Said Liz Plank of Vox: “There is real evidence of people who have done these crimes, who cite that the President has inspired them.”

This is what Democrats do. They’re all about division — black and white, rich and poor, gay and straight. Division is the glue that holds the party together. Without that, they’d have nothing. And America be damned. Liberals couldn’t care less about unity and tolerance — despite their constant utterance of the words. What they want is power, and for the masses to be beholden to them.

And the last thing they want is for facts to mess up a good story. As Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel once said, “Never let a tragedy go to waste.”

• Joseph Curl covered the White House and politics for a decade for The Washington Times. He can be reached at [email protected] and on Twitter @josephcurl.